Slipknot - Iowa

Talk about heavy and dark, because holy fucking shit! Man, when I first heard this album, it absolutely blew my mind. It was so original and fresh to me, yet also nostalgic and recognizable for me at the same time. Why’s that? Well, just like many other metal albums and bands, my parents and other family played their music hugely. Especially this album, and “Slipknot”, the group’s previous and breakout album. I’d hear this band all of the time, and I absolutely hated it at the time, I thought it was just pointless screaming and yelling with annoyingly loud instrumentation. Now, I’ve matured and grew up much more. Now, I absolutely get the appeal of this music, as it appeals to me now. Nowadays, I incredibly appreciate and love this album, it’s such a banger ass album. This album came during a really rough moment with the group, with multiple different events, becoming the darkest time of the group’s careers. With relationships within the band souring slightly, and not exactly the most connected, leading to lots of arguments and disagreements while recording and making this album. After recording the group’s first album, “Slipknot”, many of the members took a bit of time off for break after all the extensive touring. Recording this album was basically like going through hell for the group, with a variety of issues plaguing the development of new music and especially this album. Many alcohol and drug addictions would devastate some band member’s lives and work ethic, leading to less productivity with the album. The entire recording and development sessions for this album had basically nothing happy involved, it was all depressingly bleak. Many members would receive, or sometimes even cause themselves injury and pain to get the best out of their performance for the album, leading to more despair and agony remnant combined into the album. The whole time while this album was being made, it was a convoluted and saddening mess and was a terrible experience for the band themselves.

This album isn’t happy or bright in the slightest, everything about this album is grim and miserable, it serves as an album made just to release out all of the feelings and emotions of the group at the time, and it really is just full of pure unfiltered rage, a fury of it at that. Everyone in the group hated absolutely everything while making this album, they hated each other, they hated the world, while the world hated back basically. This is such a dark and heavy ass album, and from what I’ve heard, the heaviest and darkest album by the entire group, so this was their most devastating album. With all this raw and realistic rage, hatred, and ferocity exuding from this album builds up into an energetic and powerful sound for this album. Whenever I hear any song from this album, it makes me release all of my anger and emotions I have at that moment in time. One part of this album I find pretty heavy and dark is “(515)”, the intro track. The backstory of this song is very depressing, and makes the track turn from weird and mysterious to depressing and disturbing. During the recording of this album, the turntablist for the band, Sid Wilson (or known as number zero), had his grandfather pass away sadly before he could be out to visit him. So, he went into the studio and released all of his suffering, aggression, and frustrations into a recording. The original recording was way too raw and dark for people to hear, so they cut parts out of it and messed with it a bit, and that’s how you end up with the intro track. It’s a really fucked up story, and it shows how brutal and real this album is, there is zero joy in this absolute masterpiece. Anyways, the production in this album is incredibly phenomenal! The group took quite a turn with the sound and production of this album compared to “Slipknot”, their previous album. Implementing more elements of death metal, and groove metal, with less of the rap metal and industrial metal sound from the previous album. With the heaviest sound the group had so far, the production really presents itself amazingly here, it’s very clean and high quality yet gritty and raw at the same time, giving it a unique yet awesome sound to listen to. The lyricism on here is fantastically spectacular! Corey Taylor doesn’t give a single fuck what he says, and he speaks his mind on whatever the hell he wants to, and it’s glorious and ends up beautiful everytime on this album. Corey Taylor is able to discuss and approach all of these dark and saddening topics in such a proper yet relatable manner, it’s insanely admirable and one of my favorite parts of this record. Corey Taylor is able to articulate many thoughts amazingly on dark topics and subjects such as death, grief, hatred, bullying, violence, narcissism, suicide, corruption, music industry, drug abuse/problems, addiction, harsh realities, anxiety, relationship issues, lost friendships, depression, media, exploitation, lonliness, abuse, pain, suffering, society, and so on. Like I said, there is no amount of bliss or euphoria, it’s all dark and heart-wrenching suffering. The singing and vocal performances from Corey Taylor here are extremely entertaining and excellent! This was the part of the record I used to loathe the most when I wasn’t into this type of heavy metal music, but nowadays, I fucking ADORE this shit! Corey Taylor’s screeching and yelling style of metal vocals are so full of emotion and it’s ferocious as all hell, releasing all of Corey Taylor’s energy and rage, filling me with exhilarating spirit. Corey Taylor also has a normal and more calm singing voice as well, and it’s heavenly beautiful, he doesn’t use it often but when he does, it’s my favorite part of the songs it is implemented in. The instrumentation on this album is insanely astounding! Everything is very rampant and extreme, it’s heavy and brutal as all hell, and I FUCKING LOVE IT!!! It’s mind-blowing and exceedingly thrilling, it gets me head-banging every time. The drumming is unrestrained and violent, absolutely stunning. Then the violent guitars squeal loudly, adding even more intense effectiveness, it’s all vicious and thunderous, and I can’t get enough of it all. Overall, this is a powerful and upsetting album, yet such an amazing piece of art for its raw emotion and execution. It will leave you in a state of aggressive pleasure letting out of your emotions, dumping all of your anger, stress, and rage all because of its excellent, realistic, frightening, and unfiltered nature. This is most definitely a must hear, and I totally recommend this masterpiece.